


Wind in their Sails

by PrinceofHellebore (PrinceofPlants)



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship, Comfort, Expressions of Grief, Gen, Loss of loved ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27536095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceofPlants/pseuds/PrinceofHellebore
Summary: A fuller accounting of Cel's and Barnes' conversation while not holding Carter prisoner in the airship
Relationships: Commander James Barnes & Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Wind in their Sails

**Author's Note:**

> This was a quick little thing that I wrote during my nanowrimo time today. Hope you enjoy.

Cel leaned against the door. Their hands and attention were on a strange gadget that they tinkered with incessantly. It expanded and folded in on itself as they twisted the tool they’d inserted in the center. It was like nothing Barnes had witnessed. He’d been in the engine room, both when he’d still had his own body and then more deeply while following Carter. It too was filled with a bizareness that he’d never encountered. He was used to ships. He was used to rigging, complex but something that had clear connections and interactions. He found himself fascinated by the thing that Cel was working on. “Tell me about you? Where’s home to you?” They said.

Barnes froze. An instinctual and foreign stillness traveled over the kobold body. As a man he’d been steady, solid, this was a different and more timid stillness. He shook himself free of it. “I really liked the Channel,” He had to explain where that was. “I want to go back there, have a little boat of my own… maybe fish.”

Cel’s eyes stayed on the thing in their hands but Barnes knew that their attention had shifted onto him. “Had someone taught you to fish?”

“No, not yet. Henri was going to before all this.” His clawed hand gestured, it took in the ship and himself and then Carter and the not-prison-box. 

“Oh, who is that?”

“He was my third mate, when I was captain on _The Roc’s Feather _.” Barnes paused. He still felt the loss of Henri keenly and had up until this point only mentioned him to Zolf when they’d been sharing heartaches once, months ago when their journey had been lonely and seemed hopeless. Barnes was aware of Carter listening in but he wanted to tell Cel, like he somehow knew they would understand in a way that no one had. “I loved him. We were never engaged, but I’d been going to ask.”__

__“You never told me that” Carter exclaimed. Barnes showed his teeth to him. It was a kobold gesture that felt curiously natural to him. Carter actually cowered back slightly from the door. Cel glanced over their shoulder at Carter and then at Barnes again._ _

__“Do you know where he is? I understand that Europe is not very orderly right now.”_ _

__“Yeah, he was lost at sea.” The tool popped free from the gadget and in a moment both things were stowed and Cel had slid down the door into a crouch. They were now at eye level to Barnes. The expression on their face was so kind and sad that a knot developed in Barnes throat. He’d cried when he had read Henri’s name on the roll of the missing. He’d gotten personal missives from other officers dashing his hopes of a miracle return. And Cel, two years after had, without so much as a word made him feel safe to share that grief. Barnes looked away. Cel didn’t keep the eye contact but reached out a hand, offering to hold his._ _

__He took it. “I’m so sorry.” And it wasn’t regret at bringing the conversation to this point, or the discomfort at witnessing someone else’s grief but pure uncomplicated sympathy for his loss. Their hand was warm and long fingered and folded completely around his clawed hand._ _

__They sat there for what must have been minutes. Barnes drew in a deep breath. “Thank you. I hadn’t thought about him for a long time but I still miss him.”_ _

__“Yeah,” Cel nodded and squeezed his hand then let go. “So tell me about the Channel and the cottage, you want to go back there?”_ _

__“Oh, yes and I’d want a boat, but not a ship, I’m done with ships.”_ _

__“I’ve only built one boat, but I’m keen for another go. What would you want it to be able to do? Maybe we could get a water elemental and have a engine and then you wouldn’t even have to worry about wind.”_ _

__Barnes made a face. He wouldn’t say it to Cel but engines were a horror. And as much as he loved the sea, he loved the wind, he loved it filling sails and scouring across the deck. He loved it when it was breezy and warm and when it was bitter and cold. “No, I’ll have to show you how to do rigging, I bet you’d figure out some really clever things to change about the traditional methods.”_ _

__“Oh yes, that would be excellent, what do you think of the rigging on this ship, I guess, it’s different from a sea ship but…”_ _

__Their conversation wondered idle and companionably across the differences between vessels and general principles of sailing. Barnes often felt inexpert until Cel asked pointed questions about his experiences as captain and then commander and what it was like to have a ship of the line under full sail. Carter had crept back to the bars and started to pipe up with comments about his experience with rope, which mostly entailed slipping free of bonds, or using them to climb or rappel into places he ought not be. Cel’s enthusiasm encompassed that too, debating first knots and then the composition of ropes, their materials and making. And Barnes smiled, listening. It was the first conversation in a long time that allowed him to forget the current situation and the danger ahead. That was until he was called to his shift and had to leave that bubble of hope for a future that could hold a boat and a cottage and safety and love._ _

**Author's Note:**

> Might add more to this as we see Cel and Barnes interact but for now its a one off. I know there's that hug later, but I can't listen to that ep right now. Love to hear what you think.
> 
> Thanks,  
> Prince of Hellebore


End file.
